1. That the Liberals, under Stephane Dion, do not feel the timing is right for an election.

2. That the timing for an election will never be right so long as the Liberals electoral popularity is equal to or less than the Conservatives.

3. That the Liberals will never poll better than the Conservatives unless M. Dion shows some backbone and takes the fight to the Government in soundly-reasoned opposition. Like he did to the separatists when he was Minister for Intergovernmental Affairs.

4. That soundly-reasoned opposition is not grounded in tabling your own budget amendments and then failing to vote for them. Nor in threatening to bring down the Government on confidence matters but failing to do so.

If all of this is true, what is the plan for ending the paradox and, not coincidentally, one’s stint in Opposition?

To be blunt, if an election is to be avoided because you lack winning conditions, and winning conditions can not be generated except by bold (possibly election-precipitating) action… What are you waiting for?

Scuttle that sucker already. Even if you have no hope of winning.

You need an election to demonstrate that the current Leader can not win the confidence of Canadian voters, hence the selection of a new Leader is imperative. So get on with it.

I’m not going to vote for Dion or the next guy, but at least you’re moving forward instead of spinning your wheels. If the 13 years of Chrétien’s rule taught us anything, it is that a weak opposition is fine and dandy for the incumbent’s electoral longevity, but it’s acute poison to governmental accountability.

So get off your duffs and take the loss; you can at least ditch the current guy and pick someone else who can win. The longer you delay, the longer you’re stuck with a do-nothing lame duck.

All good. Except they are doing a pretty good job pointing out the unattractiveness of the Conservatives and maybe a better job than they could at plumping themselves up. It is a whimp’s strategy but if it’s keeping the Harper number dropping, why not?

This is pretty well covered by point 3. Pointing out someone else’s unattractiveness is okay if the alternative is pretty. Which he is not. No matter how low Harper’s numbers get, they are always going to be above Dion’s (as long as he keeps shying away from a fight).
Which is why I say that sooner or later you have to pull the trigger. The trend lines aren’t going to magically fix themselves.